


falling soundlessly

by thespacenico



Series: klancemas 2018 [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Team Bonding, adam is weak for shiro okay, just some happy team stuff, maybe keith doesn't panic today but he is soft for one boy, the paladins have a snowball fight, they laugh a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 17:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17047505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thespacenico/pseuds/thespacenico
Summary: klancemas day ten: snowball fight





	falling soundlessly

**Author's Note:**

> this was a lot longer than i expected haha i didn't realize i could write a 3k snowball fight mission

To be fair, Shiro has the advantage.

He does have a highly technologically advanced arm, and he has had more training at the Garrison than anyone else, so it only makes sense that everyone should team up against him.

The snowball fight was his idea, anyway, suggested after the snowstorm last night, so he had it coming.

The rules are simple: you get hit, you’re out. That’s it. That’s the only rule.

Everyone agrees that since Shiro is a one-man team and all of the space surrounding the cabin is fair play, he should be allowed a fort for protection. So while Adam and Shiro are working on that, Keith pulls everyone else aside and lowers his voice.

“Okay, here’s the plan.”

“Whoa,” Hunk’s eyes glitter with excitement. “Keith’s competitive side is coming out.”

Keith allows himself a smile before he continues. “First of all, no one trust Adam. You already know where his loyalties lie.”

Pidge snorts. “You think he’ll turn on us to help Shiro?”

“I don’t think, I know,” Keith insists, raising an eyebrow. “If he had a fatal flaw, it’d be his personal loyalty. They’re probably plotting right now.”

Allura glances over her shoulder as if to make sure Shiro and Adam aren’t paying attention. “How can we be sure when he’ll make a move?”

“Just make sure someone’s keeping an eye on him at all times,” Keith instructs. “He’s smart. He’ll do it when you least expect it.”

“Should we split up?” Lance suggests, peeking over Keith’s shoulder and squinting in Adam’s direction. “That way he can’t sabotage all of us at once.”

“Oo, good idea Lance,” Hunk agrees enthusiastically. “We can have some sort of signal if he tries to take any of us out.”

Pidge taps her chin. “Then we just need to figure out who’s going with who—”

“I got this,” Lance interrupts, waving a hand at her. “The three of you, and then I’ll go with Keith and Adam.”

Keith tries his best not to read into that. “You _want_ to be stuck with the possible traitor?” Pidge squints at him.

“Keith knows Adam best, so obviously the logical choice is to put them together,” Lance explains, and then he does that _thing_ again where he slings his arm around Keith’s shoulders like it’s nothing, completely unaware of how it makes Keith’s heart die a little every time. “Plus, we’re used to teaming up.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Allura adds quickly, shooting a smile in Keith’s direction that makes his cheeks flush. “I’m sure we can manage on our end.”

“Manage what?” Everyone jumps a little when Adam suddenly appears, squeezing into the circle between Keith and Pidge. “You guys are having a team pow-wow without me?”

Lance glances at Keith and stifles a laugh, but Keith quickly recovers. “We were just talking about splitting up.”

Adam’s eyes light up. “Oh, good idea! We can flank him from both sides.”

“Yes,” Lance nods, very seriously. “Exactly what we were thinking.” Pidge clears her throat to cover up her laughter.

“Well, Takashi is ready when you guys are, but he wants us to go inside and count to fifty so he can hide.”

“He calls him Takashi,” Lance whispers to Keith as they start making their way back toward the cabin, Pidge wondering aloud what the point was of making a snow fort if Shiro isn’t even going to use it. “That’s so cute.”

Keith shrugs, but he can’t help himself when he smiles a tiny bit. “If that’s what you wanna call it.”

Lance makes a face at him and Keith makes a face back and then he sees Adam smiling at them, so he makes a face at Adam too when Lance isn’t looking and tries not to let himself blush. They all crowd into the entryway behind the door and Hunk starts counting while Lance explains the grouping to Adam.

“You guys go left,” Lance waves at Hunk, Pidge, and Allura in turn, and then points to himself. “And we’ll go right. Cover all our bases.”

“And don’t stand in a cluster,” Keith adds. “Shiro got to be really good with his left arm and he could probably take two of us down at once if he wanted to.”

“Fifty,” Hunk whispers loudly. “It’s been fifty seconds.”

So they all shuffle closer to the door and Keith cracks it open before poking his head outside and scanning the front of the yard. Shiro is nowhere to be seen, not even behind his monstrous snow fort. “Okay, looks like we’re in the clear.”

“You’re taking this way too seriously,” Adam mutters, and then Keith swings the door open and everyone cautiously steps back outside into the snow.

Pidge, Hunk, and Allura head in Lance’s instructed direction, stretching themselves out but keeping close to the cabin. Keith squints at Adam as he walks to the other side and peeks around the corner.

“You’re positive Adam’s gonna betray us?” Lance asks quietly, the corners of his mouth turned up as he packs a snowball in his hands.

Keith huffs. “A hundred percent. C’mon.” He scoops up a handful of snow and makes his own snowball as they join Adam at the corner of the cabin.

Adam rubs his mittens together and glances back at them, his lips curled up into a mischievous smile. “I hope you two are ready.”

“So ready,” Lance nods solemnly.

“Who’s taking this way too seriously now,” Keith mutters, but Adam ignores him in favor of ducking along the side of the cabin. Lance shoots an amused, knowing grin in Keith’s direction (he’d almost forgotten the way that makes his heart flip—almost) before following, and then Keith moves to bring up the rear.

Nothing’s happened by the time they make it to the next corner of the cabin, unsurprisingly. But when they sneak around to the back where the enormous patio is, the others are already there, looking around confusedly.

Lance steps out into the yard, still cradling his snowball. “Has no one found Shiro yet?”

Pidge straightens from where she was looking into the firepit—which, why would Shiro be in the firepit, but anyway—and blinks, pushing her glasses up her nose. “He isn’t anywhere.”

“It’s not like there are many places to hide,” Hunk scratches his head. “And Shiro isn’t exactly a small person.”

Allura seems to be scanning the yard intently, but she must not find anything because she turns to the rest of them with a huff. “You three haven’t seen him either?”

Lance glances at Keith. Keith squints at the back of Adam’s head. Adam shrugs. “Not on our side.”

“Well then, where is he?” Pidge sighs.

“Wait a second.” Everyone turns to Lance, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he strokes his chin with a gloved hand. “Maybe he never left the fort.”

Hunk snaps his fingers. “Yeah! He could still be hiding there or something.”

“So, what?” Adam raises an eyebrow. “We flank him on both sides and come at him all at once?”

Keith shakes his head. “He’ll be expecting that. For all we know, he waited for us to come back here to hide so he can ambush _us_ when we get to the fort.”

“Okay, then here’s an idea,” Lance grins. “Hunk, Pidge and Allura will flank all sides of the fort, while _we—”_ He waves between himself, Keith, and Adam. “—climb onto that first floor balcony in the front.”

“We have to go inside first to get to the balcony,” Keith points out.

Pidge points at the large sliding glass doors that lead back into the cabin. “Just go in through here.”

Adam doesn’t say anything, which is—suspicious. Keith squints at him some more when he turns to look over his shoulder as if to make sure Shiro isn’t sneaking up on them—as if he doesn’t know exactly where Shiro is hiding. “Fine. Let’s go, then.”

Lance slides the door open and Adam makes them stomp the snow off their boots before they step inside, and then Allura waves and Hunk gives them all a thumbs up before they disappear again around the corner of the cabin.

“Why does this feel like we’re on a mission?” Lance whispers as they’re all climbing the stairs to the second floor.

“Because we _are_ on a mission,” Keith whispers back, his heart fluttering when Lance giggles a little.

“Okay, but why are we whispering?” Adam intrudes, and Keith huffs at him and Lance giggles some more.

They twist around the banister and walk past the hallway that leads to everyone’s rooms until they come to a stop in front of the glass door that opens onto the balcony. Lance carefully clutches his snowball to his chest as they all step outside, Keith closing the door quietly behind them. “Now what?”

Adam leans over the wooden banister as if to see over the fort, too, but it’s a little too far out to see if Shiro is crouching down behind it. “I bet we can see better if we climb out onto the roof. More room to throw, too.”

Keith huffs a quiet laugh. “Did you really just suggest we all climb out onto the roof?”

“What?” Adam puts a hand on his hip. “I can be—daring.”

“You got mad at us for ice skating,” Keith deadpans.

“That was different!”

“Are you guys coming or not?” They both look up to see Lance already on the other side of the banister, balancing carefully in the layer of snow covering the roof.

Adam shoots Keith a pointed look as if to say _watch this,_ and Keith rolls his eyes as he easily hoists himself over the banister. Keith follows behind, careful not to squish his snowball as he slowly lowers himself onto the other side so he doesn’t slip—the roof here isn’t too slanted, but better to be safe than sorry.

“Do you see him?” he murmurs, joining Lance’s side at the edge as he peers across the yard toward the fort.

Lance shakes his head, his brow furrowed. “I don’t think he’s down there.” Keith spots Allura and Pidge coming at the fort from the sides, Hunk from the middle. Hunk turns and waves. Lance waves back and squawks when Keith elbows him in the side. “Hey!”

“Focus,” Keith says, trying not to laugh at the way Lance glares at him in mock offense.

“I am focusing!”

“You clearly just let yourself get distracted. What if Shiro snuck up on us—”

“Hey boys,” Adam calls from behind them.

They both freeze, slowly turning around until they see—Shiro, smiling smugly down at them from the roof of the third floor above them, while Adam leans casually against the banister of the balcony.

“I knew it!” Keith points in Adam’s direction, although he doesn’t take his eyes off Shiro because Shiro is tossing a deadly-looking snowball up and down in his hand and he’s not very keen to get hit with it. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?”

“Not really,” Adam shrugs.

“I’m surprised you didn’t see this coming, honestly,” Shiro chuckles, and Keith squints at him.

“I _did_ see it coming. Only from about a million miles away. I warned everyone that Adam would do this.”

Shiro and Adam glance at each other, which might have been the perfect time for Keith to strike only he’s having a little too much fun with the banter. Adam’s smile grows. “Bet you didn’t see _this_ coming.”

Keith frowns. “See what—”

And somehow he had completely forgotten that Lance was standing next to him—until he leaps across the roof and joins Shiro and Adam on the other side. Keith gapes at him. “Wh—Lance, what are you doing?”

Adam just smirks and Shiro looks like he’s trying not to burst into laughter as Lance snickers. “Sorry, Keith."

“You’ve been played,” Shiro adds.

“You were teaming up with _them_ this whole time?” Keith cries, raising his snowball defensively.

“You know I love plot twists!” Lance scoffs. “This should’ve been obvious!”

Keith can hear the others yelling at him from the ground, oblivious to what’s going on above them. “I can’t believe this,” he mutters.

“Care to do the honors?” Shiro says to Lance, crouching down and grinning at Keith.

It’s not like there’s anywhere for Keith to go. He’s standing on the edge of the roof—one step back and he’d fall straight into the snowbank below. He narrows his eyes and tightens his grip on his snowball, preparing to do his best to dodge at a moment’s notice.

Lance grins at him again as he raises his arm, and then—he winks. Keith smirks, and then Lance whips around and launches his snowball right into Shiro’s arm while Keith simultaneously chunks his at Adam and hits him square in the chest.

“What—” Adam splutters and Shiro nearly slips off the roof in surprise while Keith and Lance burst into laughter.

“‘You’ve been played,’” Keith says mockingly, snorting at the shocked expression on Shiro’s face.

Adam sighs, swiping the snow from his coat as Lance returns to Keith’s side and doubles over in a fit of giggles. “I should’ve known that Lance wanting to help us was too good to be true.”

Shiro points an accusatory finger in Keith’s direction. “It was your idea for me to hide up on the roof, wasn’t it? Not Lance’s.”

Keith sticks his tongue out at Shiro and promptly gets _nailed_ in the chest with a snowball—he staggers the tiniest bit, and it’s all very funny until his foot slips on the edge of the roof and he yelps as he starts to fall backward. Lance isn’t quite fast enough to grab his flailing arm.

And the next thing Keith knows, he’s half-buried in an enormous lump of snow and there are clumps of it sneaking underneath his collar and he’s laughing so hard he can barely breathe because he just fell off the _freaking roof—_

“Keith!” He thinks Lance must be laughing as much as he is, because when he opens his eyes and looks up he sees Lance and Adam peering down at him, Adam with a horrified look on his face because the roof had technically been his idea, after all. Lance is practically wheezing, he’s laughing so hard. “Keith, are you okay?”

“I’m—” He takes an enormous breath between giggles. “I’m great, Lance.”

And then, because Lance is Lance and Lance is—crazy—he jumps off the roof and plunges into the snow directly beside Keith, laughing wildly over Adam’s alarmed protests.

“What are you—” Keith gasps for air as he bursts into laughter again, but he manages to clamber halfway out of the snow and lean over the new Lance-sized hole beside him. “What are you _doing?”_

“That was fun,” Lance says breathlessly, his eyes bright with excitement, and Keith’s chest is aching from how much he’s laughing. “Quick, help me out of my snowy grave before Adam and Shiro get smart enough to push all the snow off the roof and on us.”

A small clump of snow falls in between them in response. “I heard that!” Adam calls.

The others come running over to help them out of the snow, mildly confused by all the sudden commotion, but Keith’s and Lance’s laughter is so contagious that it’s impossible not for them to start laughing, too, even before anyone has a chance to explain what happened.

They do end up using the fort, eventually. And then have several more snowball fights, especially considering that the others didn’t even get to see any action in the first. Pidge complained about not being in on the plan in the first place; Keith justified it by saying that Hunk can’t keep a secret from Adam and Hunk—agreed.

Everyone ends up going to bed relatively early that night, exhausted from running around in the snow for half the day. Only Keith—can’t sleep. Because for some reason, something that Allura had said in their conversation yesterday keeps popping into his brain, and he can’t seem to get the thought out of his head.

He rolls over onto his side and slides his handheld off the bedside table and into his palm. The light from the screen makes him squint a little, but his eyes quickly adjust as he pulls up his messages with Allura.

 

**Keith K > Princess**

December 10th, 10:39 PM

 **Keith K:** are you asleep?

 **Princess:** not yet  
is everything alright?

 **Keith K:** no yeah, everything’s fine  
i was wondering  
well  
can i ask you a question?

 **Princess:** of course keith

 **Keith K:** well  
you said that you and lance had been talking about me

 **Princess:** yes, i recall saying that

 **Keith K:** so  
i guess i’m wondering why?

 **Princess:** ah  
i think that’s something you should ask him yourself :)

 **Keith K:** ugh allura come on  
if i thought i could trust anyone it was you

 **Princess:** :)

 **Keith K:** :(

 **Princess:** nice try

 **Keith K:** thanks i guess

 **Princess:** good night keith <3

 **Keith K:** night princess

 

**Keith K > lancey lance**

December 10th, 10:55 PM

 **Keith K:** hey

 **lancey lance:** still up?

 **Keith K:** yeah

 **lancey lance:** not tired or just can’t sleep?

 **Keith K:** a little bit of both i guess

 **lancey lance:** wanna go to the library?

 **Keith K:** sure :)

 **lancey lance:** i will never get used to ur smilies

 **Keith K:** are you coming or what

 

(They stay up for a while, murmuring to each other about the day, laughing quietly about Adam’s and Shiro’s reactions to Lance’s betrayal, looking lazily through the books and pointing out titles or covers that seem interesting even if they don’t plan on actually reading them. _I’ll ask him,_ Keith thinks, because maybe he has a suspicion about what Lance and Allura were talking about but it seems so impossible and yet it seems like the only explanation—but then he looks at Lance, and the way his smile is brighter than the Christmas lights strung around the window, shining through the darkness of the room and making him look soft around the edges and Keith—can’t. He thinks about the way that Lance had looked at the snow on one of their first nights here at the cabin, how it was soundless like it was nothing and yet Lance looked at it like it was everything, and Keith—feels like the snow, like he’s falling and falling and that feeling is only growing and growing and to him it feels loud and big and maybe kind of scary but it’s impossible that Lance could look at him the same way, because he feels like the snow but he is nothing like the snow—yet still he falls. And when Lance falls asleep an hour or two later, his head tilted back against one wall on the ledge, Keith looks—he looks and watches and stares and he wonders if maybe—maybe there’s a chance. He falls asleep a while later, after he’s grabbed blankets from his room and carefully tossed one over Lance, and looked a little more, and wondered.)

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on [tumblr](https://www.taxashi.tumblr.com)!  
> 


End file.
